diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index d41dd0a..56491bc 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
 
 Codecrypt ChangeLog
 
+1.7.1
+
+- rewrite QC-MDPC decoding for speed (still around O(wi^2))
+- fix the padding broken on non-byte-aligned numbers
+
 1.7
 
 - add QC-MDPC McEliece variant
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 12655bf..9926213 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 
 AC_PREREQ(2.6)
-AC_INIT([codecrypt], [1.7])
+AC_INIT([codecrypt], [1.7.1])
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR(.) # because of libtoolize
 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])
 
diff --git a/src/mce_qcmdpc.cpp b/src/mce_qcmdpc.cpp
index 96eab87..ff55d55 100644
--- a/src/mce_qcmdpc.cpp
+++ b/src/mce_qcmdpc.cpp
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ int privkey::decrypt (const bvector & in_orig, bvector & out, bvector & errors)
 		for (i = 0; i < cs; ++i)
 			if (unsat[i] > max_unsat) max_unsat = unsat[i];
 		if (!max_unsat) break;
-		if (max_unsat > bs) err ("mce_qcmdpc: weird decryption error, expect failures");
+		if (max_unsat > bs) return 3;
 		//TODO do something about possible timing attacks
 
 		uint threshold = 0;
@@ -298,7 +298,7 @@ int privkey::decrypt (const bvector & in_orig, bvector & out, bvector & errors)
 		}
 	}
 
-	if (round == rounds) return 3; //we simply failed, haha.
+	if (round == rounds) return 4; //we simply failed, haha.
 
 	errors = in_orig;
 	errors.add (in); //get the difference